Fibrous nonwoven materials and fibrous nonwoven composite materials are widely used as products, or as components of products, such as wet wipes, because they can be manufactured inexpensively and made to have specific characteristics. Since these products can be manufactured so inexpensively, they are typically viewed as disposable, as opposed to reusable.
One approach to making fibrous nonwoven composite materials involves the use of homogeneous mixtures of materials such as air laid webs of fibers mixed with cellulosic fibers or another absorbent material. Other types are prepared by joining different nonwoven materials in a laminate or formed as a layered structure. These products can be prepared from plastic materials such as plastic sheets, films and nonwoven webs, prepared by extrusion processes such as, for example, slot film extrusion, blown bubble film extrusion, meltblowing of nonwoven webs and spunbonding.
Nonwoven materials that are useful as wet wipes should meet minimum product standards for strength, moisture level, size, flexibility, thickness, softness and texture. However, with respect to personal care wet wipe products in particular, there is an increasing consumer preference for materials that meet even higher softness and texture standards, such that they approach a cloth-like feel.
Some attempts to produce such materials have resulted in products with tufts on their outer surfaces. However, such products have generally met with consumer resistance, particularly in personal care products, as the resulting male-female tuft orientation provides an unacceptably rough surface. Attempts to place tufts on the outside of only one side, so as to eliminate roughness on that side, has only caused confusion as to which side is intended for use.
What is needed, therefore, is a new nonwoven laminate that is soft and cloth-like, yet is easy to use and relatively inexpensive to produce.